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Fort Hood Shooter Says He Wants to Become 'Citizen' of Islamic State Caliphate

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Catherine Herridge.

The convicted shooter in the Fort Hood massacre has written a letter to the leader of the Islamic State saying he wants to become a “citizen” of the caliphate, in the latest example of the terror group’s reach inside the U.S.

The letter from Nidal Hasan, obtained by Fox News, comes after two Americans reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. Sources late Wednesday identified the second as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis. Fox affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reported that Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McArthur McCain, who grew up outside Minneapolis in the town of New Hope and most recently lived in San Diego.

The State Department said Thursday it could not confirm Muhumed’s death and efforts to reach his family were unsuccessful.

In the undated letter, Hasan — who fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 at Fort Hood in 2009 in what the Defense Department called “workplace violence”– tells ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that he wants to join the caliphate.

“I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State,”Hasan says in the handwritten document addressed to “Ameer, Mujahid Dr. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Fort Hood Shooter Wants to Join ISIS From Prison

By Christine Rousselle.

Former Army psychologist Nidal Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 and injured dozens, has written a letter from prison to ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi requesting citizenship in the Islamic state.

“I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State,” Hasan wrote in the letter, according to Fox News.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: We Have No Strategy to Fight ISIS; Ukraine Wasn’t Invaded

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Speaking from the White House Briefing room on Thursday, President Obama touched on a whole host of foreign challenges facing the nation.

Most significantly, perhaps, he noted that Secretary of State John Kerry will soon be heading to the Middle East to “build a coalition” to help meet the growing threat of ISIL.

“I am confident that we can and we will,” he intoned.

He also noted that he had asked Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel — and his joint chiefs of staff — to furnish him with “a range of options” to finally deal with these violent and bloodthirsty terrorists.

“Clearly ISIL had come to represent the very worst elements in the region that we have to deal with collectively,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Motorist With ISIS Flag Makes Bomb Threat Against Police

Photo Credit: Chicago Police Department

Photo Credit: Chicago Police Department

A man who had an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle is facing several charges after he threatened police with a bomb Wednesday morning when he was pulled over on the Southwest Side.

Emad Karakrah, 49, was charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated fleeing; and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued license, according to Chicago police. He was also issued three traffic citations.

Someone called police after seeing a “suspicious person” driving a silver Pontiac southbound in the 7700 block of South Kedzie at 9:18 a.m. with an ISIS flag waving out the window, according to a police report.

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS to Iraqi Christians: You Have One Week to Convert to Islam or Die

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By Leah Barkoukis.

This situation for Christians in Iraq has grown even direr. ISIS is now giving the religious minority an ultimatum: convert within one week’s time or face the sword.

World Watch Monitor documented the case of Mikha Qasha, an elderly and paralyzed Iraqi Christian. ISIS came to his home, WWM reports, and gave him the options of fleeing, converting or death. They gave him one week to think about it.

Fortunately, Qasha, along with his grandson, were able to go to a safe haven in the capital area of the Kurdistan region.

Many others are still at risk, however.

According to MCN Direct, others who fled from a district in Nineveh, and from Qaraqosh and Bartella, said IS is now imposing a conversion deadline of one week for any non-Muslim. Qasha’s neighbour, a young man who fled the city this week, said he was hiding in his home with his father when IS members found them on August 17. They gave them a week, until August 24, to convert to Islam or be killed.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Al Qaeda magazine hints of looming attack; urges bombing of Vegas, military targets

By Lisa Daftari.

A new English-language Al Qaeda magazine features a how-to article on making car bombs and suggests terror targets in the United States, including casinos in Las Vegas, oil tankers and military colleges, and implies that an attack is imminent.

The online publication, called “Palestine-Betrayal of the Guilty Conscience Al-Malahem” and put out by the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, calls for Muslims around the world to follow “the recipe” provided to set off car bombs in crowded venues. It includes a timeline of “selected jihadi operations” that the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which first flagged the slickly-produced latest edition of the terror publication, finds chilling.

“The timeline concludes with the date 201?’ and blank spaces and question marks for the photo and information of the next attack — implying that it is coming soon.” said MEMRI Executive Director Steve Stalinsky.

There is a suggested list of targets for lone-wolf, or individually executed, terror attacks, including New York’s Times Square, casinos and night clubs in Las Vegas, oil tankers and trains, the Georgia Military College, the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and General Atomics defense contractor in San Diego.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: Hillary's 'War Hawk' Policies Led to Benghazi Attack, Rise of ISIS

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) certainly has a knack for boldness. On Sunday’s Meet the Press, he dubbed U.S. military engagement in Libya “Hillary’s war” and stated the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) is not a result of President Obama’s inaction in the Middle East but the unintended consequence of the U.S. military engagement in Libya.

The comments predictably caused heads in the GOP’s foreign policy establishment to explode. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin called the rhetorical gambit “ludicrous” and said Paul holds the same views as his father, the libertarian former-Rep. Ron Paul. In an email to me, John Yoo, the former top Justice Department official in the Bush administration, said Paul is the Republicans’ “own version of George McGovern.”

In a phone interview, Paul expanded on his remarks and offered a detailed rendering of his views on foreign policy that, regardless of their merits, are undoubtedly innovative for a man likely to seek the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016. Paul told Breitbart News:

I would say the objective evidence shows that Libya is a less safe place and less secure place, a more chaotic place with more jihadist groups—and really, we’ve had two really bad things happen because of Hillary’s push for this war. One is that our ambassador was killed as a consequence of not having adequate security and really as a consequence of having a really unstable situation there because of the Libyan war, and then most recently our embassy having to flee by land because they couldn’t leave via the airport because of such a disaster in Libya. So I think it’s hard to argue that the Libyan war was a success in any way. From my perspective, the first mistake they made was not asking the American people and Congress for authority to go to war.

While Muammar Gaddafi, or Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, or Iraq’s Saddam Hussein—deposed during the George W. Bush administration—were certainly bad actors, Paul wants to know: who takes their place?

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS Reportedly Demands $6.6M for Release of 26-Year-Old American Woman

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Islamic State militants are reportedly demanding $6.6 million and the release of a U.S. prisoner before they will free a third American hostage held by the group, an unidentified aid worker.

A source confirmed to Fox News that the aid worker is a 26-year-old woman from the West Coast. They did not provide further details, but ABC News reported that the woman, whose relatives have requested she not be identified, is the third of at least four Americans known to be held by the extremist Muslim organization. American journalist James Foley was executed by the group in a video that circulated online last week. Steven Sotloff, formerly of Miami, Florida, was also seen alive in the same footage and purportedly remains in Islamic State custody.

The terror organization also has demanded that U.S. authorities release Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted in 2010 of trying to kill U.S. officials two years earlier. Siddiqui, 42, who reportedly married a nephew of Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2003, was later sentenced to 86 years in prison. The Karachi native, who was educated in the United States and earned degrees from M.I.T. and Brandeis University, remains in federal custody in Texas.

Siddiqui’s relatives, meanwhile, sought to distance themselves from the militants, saying they were “very distraught” to be linked in any way with Islamic State, ABC News reports.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Intelligence Chairman on ISIS: ‘They Are One Plane Ticket Away’

Photo Credit: ISIS propaganda video

Photo Credit: ISIS propaganda video

By Terence P. Jeffrey.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is “one plane ticket away from U.S. shores” and that terrorists carrying European passports could get into the United States without a visa.

“Oh, it’s a very real threat,” Rogers said of the threat to the United States from ISIS.

“You saw the very barbaric behavior,” he said. “And one of the problems is it’s gone unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain to across Europe, even the United States, to go and join the fight. They see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy, and they want to be a part of it. And that’s what makes it so dangerous. They are one plane ticket away from U.S. shores. And that’s why we’re so concerned about it.”

Host Chris Jansing asked: “But we’ve heard the Pentagon say that, right now, they are not in a position to launch an attack on the United States. Is there any credible intelligence that ISIS is either planning that or has the capability to do it?

“Well, I’m going to dispute that,” said Rogers. “So we know that, and the number 2,000 of Westerners with Western passports is low. Intelligence has a very different number and it’s much higher than that. And the very fight between Al Qaeda [and ISIS} that allowed ISIS to separate from Al Qaeda in Syria was the fact that they wanted to conduct Western-style operations.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Graham: ‘Gold Medal Will Be Awarded to the Group That Can Hit America’

By Susan Jones.

ISIS/ISIL is competing with other jihadist groups for money and recruits, and “the gold medal will be awarded to the group that can hit America,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Sunday.

“It’s about time now to assume the worst about these guys, rather than underestimating them. They’re not the J.V. team anymore,” Graham told CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley. “They’re the most prominent terrorist organization in the world, but they’re not the only one. They’re in competition with the other jihadist groups.

“And the gold medal will be awarded to the group that can hit America. They’re fighting for status with al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Nusra. All of these guys are bidding for future recruits and status, and the gold medal goes to the one that can hit us here at home. To those who underestimate this threat, you do so at America’s peril.”

Graham said President Obama needs to change his strategy, because “what he’s doing now is not working.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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A Somali Al-Shebab fighter stands on FebWATCH: Bob Woodward Raises Specter Of New 9/11 With ISIS

By Brendan Bordelon.

Bob Woodward warned that ISIS terrorists based in Iraq and Syria may one day mount a massive strike against the United States rivaling the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — noting that the jihadis already have more money and resources than al-Qaida possessed 13 years ago.

The famous Washington Post journalist appeared on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the burgeoning Islamist threat, which has been attacked by American warplanes after nearly reaching the Kurdish capital of Irbil earlier this month.

ISIS brutally beheaded captured American journalist James Foley in response, and promised to shed more western and American blood in revenge for U.S. strikes.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Homeland Security is Already Monitoring Suspected Members of ISIS in America

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Photo Credit: townhall

Photo Credit: townhall

Sen. Inhofe: ISIS Developing Plan to Blow Up Major US City

By Leah Barkoukis.

The administration can deny that the Islamic State (ISIS) is not at war with America all it wants, but their rhetoric, numerous threats, and recent beheading of an American journalist suggest otherwise. And according to one senator, they’re already developing a plan to blow up a major U.S. city.

It is a serious warning coming from Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe as he warns of the potential of another attack on American soil. The senator sat down with Fox 25 to talk about a variety of topics, but as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the top issue was national security.

“We’re in the most dangerous position we’ve ever been in as a nation,” Senator Inhofe told Fox 25’s Phil Cross.

“ISIS, they are really bad terrorists, they’re so bad even Al Qaida is afraid of them,” Inhofe said reflecting on the recent beheading of American journalist James Foley. Beyond the beheading, Inhofe said the current terror organizations are not going to stay contained to the Middle East. “They’re crazy out there and they’re rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major U.S. city and people just can’t believe that’s happening.”

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS Sleeper Cells Allegedly Planning Large-Scale Terror Attacks On Mainland America

Photo Credit: Inquisitr

Photo Credit: Inquisitr

ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, has taken somewhat of a pounding in Iraq recently at the hands of the laser guided missile strikes on their positions in the region, ordered by Barack Obama.

However, according to intelligence reports on Saturday, ISIS is not just going to let the U.S. strikes against them go unnoticed or unpunished. Five intelligence officials told Bloomberg News some worrying things about ISIS and its strategy.

They alleged that the fanatical Islamist terrorist group is planning to carry out major terror attacks against targets in the United States, and possibly in Europe.

According to the intelligence officials, ISIS has sleeper cells around the world, including in Europe and America, whose goal is to gain a greater foothold in the Islamic world, politically and militarily.

U.S. Army Colonel Derek Harvey said that due to Obama’s failed policy in leaving Iraq, the country is now gripped in a “competition for jihadi leadership” between ISIS and Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, following the falling out between the two groups last year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Islamic State Message to America: 'We Will Drown all of You in Blood'

Photo Credit: beverly and pack

Photo Credit: beverly and pack

The Islamic State militant group that has seized large parts of Iraq and drawn the first American air strikes since the end of the occupation in 2011 has warned the United States it will attack Americans “in any place” if the raids hit its militants.

The video, which shows a photograph of an American who was beheaded during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and victims of snipers, featured a statement which said in English “we will drown all of you in blood”.

U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have helped Kurdish fighters take back some territory captured by Islamic State militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS Beheads American Journalist James Wright Foley

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By Katie Pavlich.

The terrorist group ISIS has allegedly beheaded American journalist James Wright Foley on video in Iraq in order to send a message to the United States. I’m not going to dignify the terrorists by posting the video here, you can look it up on your own if you’d like. A warning, extremely violent and difficult to watch.

Wright’s fellow journalist Ihan Tanir gave some background on the situation on Twitter.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: DailyMail

Photo Credit: DailyMail

Executioner ‘with a British accent’ beheads US journalist in the name of ISIS: Mother of slaughtered American calls on Islamist group to cease killing and pays tribute to her ‘extraordinary son’

By JOHN HALL FOR MAILONLINE and JAMES NYE and ASHLEY COLLMAN.

A shocking video has emerged showing an ISIS militant who speaks with a British accent brutally executing an American photojournalist who was kidnapped in Syria two years ago.

Graphic footage of the execution appeared in an video titled: ‘A Message to the U.S.’, in which an apparently coerced James Wright Foley, 40, describes America as his true killers for using airstrikes to assist Kurdish forces in recapturing the Mosul Dam from ISIS militants.

Foley – who went missing in 2012 while working for the Global Post news agency in Syria – is then beheaded with a small knife over a period of seven minutes by a masked man dressed all in black.

The executioner, who speaks directly to the camera in what appears to be a London accent, then warns that a second captured American journalist will be killed if the U.S. doesn’t halt the airstrikes.

Speaking after the video emerged, Foley’s mother Diane issued a statement saying that she and her husband John have ‘never been prouder’ of their son, who they say gave his life to expose the suffering of the Syrian people.

Read more from this story HERE.